


Under the night sky, I kiss the bird

by lora3210



Category: ONEUS (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, At The Sea, Boxer!Geonhak, Boys Kissing, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Lipstick & Lip Gloss, M/M, Short One Shot, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-13
Updated: 2020-09-13
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:55:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26406853
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lora3210/pseuds/lora3210
Summary: Even if everything gets messy by his confession, he hopes the bird will give him a chance to be a friend. If it's not possible, he hopes at least he can watch him like watching the flying birds.
Relationships: Kim Geonhak | Leedo/Lee Keonhee
Comments: 2
Kudos: 21





	Under the night sky, I kiss the bird

**Author's Note:**

> 선미(SUNMI) - 보라빛 밤(pporappippam) (<https://youtu.be/H8YW1tlsmE8>)  
> Hope you like it! :)

A clerk scans a bar code on a small, stick-shaped box and asks Geonhak with a clear, silvery voice, "Do you have a membership card?"   
Geonhak with a low, rough voice says, looking at products displayed at the counter, "No."

What Geonhak is bringing with him is a lip balm with a cherry scent. It's not for him but for whom he's having a crush on.

Keonhee told him he lost his lip balm two days ago. "Well, you know, Hyung, I went to the sea with my friends. When they tried to drop me to the seawater, my lip balm fell out of my trouser pocket and it was...swept away by the wave..." 

The way he pouted his lips looked cute. That's what Geonhak thought all the time while he's with him. Nothing else couldn't enter his mind. _Keonhee was cute, yes, fucking incredibly, super cute._

Many days and nights, a very small part of his life, were spent on thinking why Geonhak started to like him. Even now he doesn't know why he likes Keonhee but there's one evident thing of how he thinks about Keonhee―he resembles a bird that can fly away at any time he wants to do so. 

He doesn't know exactly what bird he resembles. Only he guesses that he must resemble a bird that can fly with its wings. So, if he just let go of Keonhee with telling nothing about his crush, he thinks he will only stare with the deep frustration at his flying to the pale blue sky.

He imagines a little white bird flaps in his hands in order to escape. It seems to be cruel but he never releases it. Soon its small beak pecks the calluses of his fingers got from his boxer life. He chews his lower lip, enduring the stinging feeling and trying not to let out of the bird to the air. 

He reminds the moments he lost in a match. The critical factor to decide who's gonna win or lose is always an ability to catch a timing to attack an opponent's unguarded point. Whenever he was knocked down, bleeding and sweating so much that it dropped on the floor, the coach pinpointed that he hesitated to catch the timing and exposed his weak point to the opponents. He shouted with anger, "Why you often miss the timing? You didn't so at training! Don't be such a coward!" 

He promised his coach to be bolder. In boxing, he's sure he can be better. But what about his first love confession? Telling the crush is not a boxing training or a match. No opponent to beat, no guard, no jab, no hook or straight or uppercut, but only a bird-like boy, Lee Keonhee, and his big eyes full of glowing curiosity and warm intimacy to Geonhak.

Like the time of his defeat, he is now hesitating, gripping a present in his one hand and feeling the surging tension that can make his steps turned to the way home. He opens his empty hand. The sweat oozes out of his palm that has some calluses. He pictures that a drop of blood is out of his thumb by the bird's fierce pecking and eventually he opens his hands and it gets out of them as swiftly as the wind. What if he gets scared at me? What if he hates me? What should I do if my confession turns into a failure?

He looks up the sky. The pale blue sky is being colored with dark blue the night time brings. He also can see a flock of doves flying to somewhere. He also can hear some song from a bakery behind him singing about some kind of love. _Even if everything gets messy when we open our eyes, oh baby, I'll wait for another night―_

Even if everything gets messy by his confession, he hopes the bird will give him a chance to be a friend. If it's not possible, he hopes at least he can watch him like watching the flying birds. Letting out a sigh of hopelessness but thinking that nothing can be changed, Geonhak keeps walking to the sea, where Keonhee is waiting for him.

The cool wind bearing the fishy smell and saltiness blows to the walking people. It's not the first time to go to the fall sea but it's something new and strange to go there to meet whom he's eager to see. As Geonhak going along a sloping road to a beach, the number of people is getting decreased and when he is finally out of there, there's a brownish beach with no one but Keonhee who's walking along the paved beach road. Geonhak can recognize him because of his tall height. 

"Lee Keonhee!" He calls him as loud as he can and Keonhee turns his head to where Geonhak stands, raising his left hand and waving.

Steps are slow and careful. But like not knowing what Geonhak's thinking and feeling, Keonhee is running to him at a quick step. "Kim Geonhak! A mosquito bit me!"

As soon as they get close enough to see each other's face under the beaming street light, Keonhee shows a small swollen spot of his white arm. "Look! So itchy!" 

"I should have bought something to treat the bite."  
"Yeah, I should have called you to bring it."  
"Don't scratch it and apply your saliva on it."  
"Will it work?"  
"Maybe."

He pouts his lips as if it's his habit. "I don't like it."

"Then, what should I do? Do I have to buy an ointment?"

He shakes his head. He says, pointing the swelling, "Blow your breath to here like _whooo-_ "

Geonhak feels his ears a little bit reddened. "Should I?"   
Keonhee nods, "Please."

Geonhak holds and raises the arm, tilts his head a little to the swollen spot, and as Keonhee requested, he blows his breath a few times. _"Whoo- Whoo- Whoo-"_

It's like dreaming a too good dream. Geonhak feels giddy as if riding a roller coaster or a pendulum ride. A string that has stretched straight inside his mind gets tangled messily. Everything makes him fall down to somewhere full of confusion. His mind starts to wander to find how to think, how to feel, and how to behave. But what he only feels is just his heart's fluttering similar to the bird's flapping the wings. 

"Itchy. But it's better," says Keonhee, pulling his arm smoothly out of Geonhak's hand. "Your face gets reddish. You know it?"  
Geonhak pats his right cheek. "Hot here." Keonhee giggles, "It's cool here. And today's weather is cooler than yesterday. Or are you upset?"  
"No."  
"Then, okay, never mind." Keonhee's line of sight drops on Geonhak's right hand gripping something. "What is it?"

Geonhak gives it to him without any hesitation. "Unwrap it."  
"Here?"   
"Yeah."

The white and beautiful fingers take the present from Geonhak's hand. With the eyes of curiosity, which Geonhak always thinks of, Keonhee with a faint smile unwraps a paper of a pink-dot pattern. "Oh," he stares at the lip balm case in surprise. "God, you've minded that I lost my lip balm here?"

"I just came up with it on the way here."  
"Oh, anyway, thanks."

A pinky stick with polish is out of the paper case and he opens a round cap. "It can make my lips pinkish," says Keonhee, giggling.

"Oh, I didn't know that," says Geonhak, scratching the back of his head lightly for a little awkward.  
"But, it's okay." Keonhee's eyes go on Geonhak and he gazes at him just as he wants something. "Will you help me?"  
"What?"  
He hands the lip balm to Geonhak with his index finger pointing his lips, "Put it on my lips."

Watching all the way Keonhee's doing is like being hit by successive jabs or hooks. And hearing the sentence "Put it on my lips" is like being struck hard by an uppercut. Geonhak's wandering mind now can't find where to settle. He feels like many stars with sharp angles being poured down directly to him and pricking his whole body. "Why?" 

"I don't have a mirror."  
"You can use the phone camera!"  
"It's out of battery."  
"Is it true?"  
"I can show it to you, Hyung."  
He puts out his cell phone from the left pocket of his denim jacket and presses the power button. Seeing the cell phone not turned on no matter how many times Keonhee presses the button, Geonhak gathers his brows, "Well, well, okay, okay, come closer."

With a look of delight, he makes one big step and leans over to him a little bit. Looking at the closed eyes and the pouted lips, he cups Keonhee's chin softly, and at a slow pace, striving to stop the subtle trembling of his hands, he applies the lip balm along the sleek lip line with his all care. All the blood inside rushes to his face and he can't help but feel the heat on it and an intense urge to do something he's never done.

"Done."  
"Done?" Keonhee opens his eyes and finds Geonhak's reddened face. But unlike Geonhak's expectation that he's gonna burst laughter, he doesn't laugh but makes a chuckle that has a meaning.

"You like me."  
"No."  
"You do."  
"No. I don't."  
"Even you say 'never', it won't convince me."  
"Then how about saying it as many as I can?"  
"It will be of no use. While you saying, your face will get more reddish than now. Or your nose can stretch longer like Pinocchio. That will tell everything." Keonhee shrugs.

"What do you want me to do now?" asks Geonhak, without making eye contact. His voice gets lower but a little bit shaky.

"I'll close my eyes again. Do whatever you want." As if he reads Geonhak's mind, he closes his eyes again before Geonhak asks him why. 

_Do whatever you want._ Geonhak realizes that he has no need to make any excuse for his red face. 

No sound of the bird's flapping its wings. Instead, the bird is chirping and sitting inside his hand as if it were nestling on its circular home. The bird is waiting for some kind of warmth's coming. Thousands of worries faded away. A wall of anxiety melting down. The cool wind momentarily hugs their bodies and scatters into the empty air. Geonhak reminds his wishes which are, fortunately, meaningless now. Even though his weak point is caught, as he tried to get the timing and finally made it, it's fine. Yes, _totally_ fine. 

"What you waiting for?" asks Keonhee with a frown.  
"Nothing." answers Geonhak with a radiant smile.

If he can kiss the small head of the white bird, it might be similar or less similar to a kiss to Keonhee's soft, plump, glossy lips. A bright light of pleasure that dare not to be expressed with words drives the two people to the dizziness of love.


End file.
